Time again for the Church of Schwartz Lions Congregation. As usual, I've copied my answers here, and you can check out Lions bloggers from around the web at Church of Schwartz here once the article is posted up.
Before I get started, a quick kudos to Ty at The Lions in Winter who had an excellent piece picked up by the Roar Report -- the Lions Official Blog. Congratulations Ty!
Also, thanks to Phil Zaroo's link, my series "Road to 0-16" was on the Lions story-links page on Sports Illustrated.com! The series garnered 3 times more readers than the prior record for any piece! Thank you to everyone for your continued support of my hobby!!
Onto the Questions:
1. How does recent signing Marquand Manuel fit in the secondary picture?
He is not an "immediate unquestioned starter" so to me, the situation remains the same: There are two starters -- Buchanon at CB and Delmas at S. Henry will likely start at one or the other. Everything else (including what position Henry plays) is up for grabs.
2. In your dreams, how many wins do the Lions end up with this year?
Dream scenario as in "Best Case Scenario Considering Reality" or the "Dream Dream Scenario" that is as relative to the actual Lions team on the field as Matt Millen is to "NFL's Greatest Leader since Lombardi." Seriously, though, IF every IF goes perfectly for the Lions -- 10-6. But let me qualify that by saying there are a LOT of big IF's about this team no one can know until the season starts.
3. What is your best guess for how many wins the Lions actually get this year?
My best guess would put the Lions at about 6 wins +/- 1 win for "how the ball bounces" (luck). They are improving, and have a lot of potential -- but the older pickups need to keep playing at a high level, and there are a lot of very young players who will be going through their growing pains. 2010 will be better -- possibly even playoff good.
9 comments:
6 wins. Quite optimistic.
They did win that many games just two years ago however, so, despite last year's debacle, I think they are not quite as bad as they appeared to be last season. If the can shore-up that center of the field against the run, they should be alright.
This team will be leaps and bounds over last year's team just from the coaching aspect.
The only problem you have is you always want to say, "Well, let's look at pre-season." An we all know what happened last year. The band wagon was large, folks. We all got sucked down the crapper thinking the Leo's had a little more talent than what we thought.
But it wasn't the talent level that was poor. Pre-season shows you were you measure up. The LIons have better than average talent. 0-16 shows you what pre-game preparation and game day performance gets you. 0-16 shows that these guys aren't gamers, or they weren't prepared, or the Lions got the crap coached out of them. Lack of in-game adjustments are a huge part of the Marinelli indictment.
GERALD ALEXANDER - Ever since I saw him playing on the "Smurf-Turf" he's been a favorite. I don't know what is going around in camp, but I really hope this trade is worthwhile or meaningful because I am quite leary of praising this move and really question it right now.
Dennis Northcutt is a well-traveled hobo of a receiver who is a quick, shifty slot guy. He isn't a BIG receiver and doesn't have break-away speed. This must mean one of two things. Alexander needed to go because he is having problems with the injury again, or the Lions really feel they need slot receiver help and possible returner issues. James "Shack" is the personnel guru who came in this off-season from Jacksonville and has seen Northcutt in action. Maybe there is something we don't know? I would hardly call the 31 year old version of Northcutt a special teams demon and think this points to Henry spending a lot of time back at safety as opposed to CB. I also would then hope that we sign a free agent CB.
I disagree nubs. I think (and hope) this move speaks to the talent the Lions have at the S position. First of all I love Bullocks and Delmas, they should be the starters. Now if two (they will keep 4 S max) players from Pearson, Manuel, and Schwiegert emerge as legit backups/ST players (I believe it will be Pearson and Schwiegert) then where was the room for Alexander? I think it was a numbers game and Alexander was the odd man out.
Additionally I hope Henry stays at Corner. He has nice size and decent speed and I believe he would be a better starter than King ~who I might add looks like a very nice Nickel corner.
As far as the o-line is concerned I really like the depth they have. Best depth in years, the talent could be better but with Jensen and Salaam as backups (I believe Loper will start at OLG)they have two legit OT/OG backups and HUGE Fonoti, and Ramirez can battle it out for another spot, with Gandy (vet who can play OC and OG) nailing down the 9th and final spot. ~ibjackiemoon
With Northcutt being a punt returner, in addition to being a WR, I think this may be a move to secure a backup for that 3rd round kid we grabbed. So far he's been hurt and I haven't heard anything great about his punt returning ability so far in the OTA's. Remember the prices punt returners were going for before the draft and the fact that we do seem to be crowded at S now (though I would have kept Alexander as I liked his moxie, ie that Peterson hit in the Fiesta Bowl, and we always have Cason to return punts ahahahaha)
And lets move Fonoti to DT :-) He could just stand there and take up two lanes!!!!!!
Love
Desertlion
Jackie
That is the third possibility, and I hope one of the two of them are correct. The other thing is, if there were any medical issues, he wouldn't pass the physical. I hope Schweigert plays better this year (than last); I've always liked the person that beat Charles Rogers for the State Title in the 100 yard dash as opposed to the former WR himself.
OLINE -I want to see the Big Nasties once the pads go on. I won't comment on Loper, Fruity Tanuti, or Cranberry until then. Everyone knows I'm a huge Jansen fan after meeting him in person last month.
I'm guessing Northcutt was picked up more to be that veteran WR presence that's missing in the locker room. Maybe he conditions and practices well and does it the right way. Someone all the young guys can emulate. He's competent depth that probably serves other purposes as well.
I think we all sometimes forget the off-field stuff, since we don't really have much tape on what goes on outside of game day.
Alexander boggles my mind a little bit. The Lions must be pretty convinced that he's never going to be anything other than a mediocre player.
Hey, thanks man! I really appreciate the kudos. Oh, and congrats to you, too! A like from SI.com has got to feel great. You know, it's really amazing how supportive the Lions Corner of the blogosphere can be. I don't know if it's like this with all fandoms/blogospheres, but almost everyone who cares enough to bloh about this team is a quality person. I guess all the losing stripped away the deadwood . . .
Peace
Ty
uh, LINK from SI.com, not LIKE.
Peace
Ty
Hay..its really awesome..thanks for information..
Thanks for sharing...
___________________
Andrew
Free HD DVR Receiver Upgrade
Post a Comment